Starling Bank, a UK-based digital and mobile-only challenger bank, has introduced first personal loan products for the customers.

The first loan products have been launched to help customers plan their borrowing efficiently and disperse the cost of big ticket items.

Starling’s unsecured personal loans will make borrowing easy, and are designed to meet customers’ personal financial circumstances.

The customers can apply for the new products within minutes, and can be accessed to the money straight away once approved.

Starling is providing customers with a chance to borrow up to £5,000, and can select either day or prescribed period for repayment.

The bank’s customers can view what they are borrowing, for how long and their monthly payments, as well as what the total repayment will be at the end of the term through Starling’s app.

The loans will support customers plan in advance of purchases for big ticket items such as cars or home improvements.

The customers can also use the loans to disperse the costs of items they have already purchased.

The customers who secure approval for Starling overdraft can apply for a loan, which is said to be cheaper than an overdraft. They can borrow as much as they have left in their overdraft.

Starling Bank lending head Stuart Leak said: “Our spread the cost loans offer a structured repayment schedule giving customers greater flexibility and control of their money.

“If an unexpected bill hits your account, or you are faced with an unavoidable large expense, you’ll be able to spread the cost with a loan and choose a repayment method, including both the time period and monthly repayment amount that suit you.”

In August this year, Starling Bank introduced banking-as-a-platform offer, which allows businesses to offer their own retail banking services and cards using its application programming interface (API) infrastructure.

The new API platform will enable businesses to develop and scale new customized products such as savings or current accounts and debit cards by using Starling’s advanced API infrastructure.